Friday, January 30, 2015

LP of Alabama announces ballot access coalition

Janurary 6, 2015 - "The Libertarian Party of Alabama is pleased to announce our coalition with Alabama for Our America Initiative, Let Bama Vote, Alabama for Ballot Access Law Equality, and other partner organizations to lobby the legislature to ease ballot access barriers for candidates running outside the establishment parties. Alabama State Senator Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) has confirmed that he intends to again introduce a bill to lower the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties, from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote to 1.5%. The purpose of our coalition is to raise awareness of Alabama unfair ballot access laws and to encourage our supporters to contact their legislators to demand change....

"In 2014, Alabama was one (1) of only four (4) states that did not have candidates other than the two (2) traditional party candidates on the November ballot for statewide office. Additionally, Alabama was the only state with an entirely unopposed United States Senate race and four (4) unopposed statewide offices.

"In 2004, 2008, and 2012, Alabama was part of a small minority of states where the national minor party presidential campaigns, including the Libertarians and Greens, could only appear on the ballot as Independents. Alabama has had no Federal or Statewide independent or minor party candidates on the ballot since 2002....

"Even with the record low voter turnout in the November 2014 general election, ballot access would require the collection of approximately 36,000 valid signatures of registered voters statewide, around 5,000 valid signatures for a single Congressional race, and approximately 400 valid signatures in any one of the state's 105 House districts. This signature threshold is the second highest in the country for statewide office and among the highest for any political office."